The Who I Am Story and the Dangers of a Single Story
“Storytelling, Narration, and the Who I Am Story” and “The Danger of a Single Story” present helpful and vital ideas for writers as well as audiences. The former, a scholarly article, discusses the definition of stories as not just a source of entertainment but as a learning experience. Life as a human would be so incomplete without stories of any kind. When writing a “Who I Am” story, you should show, not tell who you are. Avoid rigid details that don’t contribute to the message and key theme you are trying to convey. Instead, embrace vivid imagery and colorful language that will not only entertain your audience but do a better job at revealing who you are. As the article states, narratives and stories are a part of human kind. Without them, we would only know our own experiences, unable to share them with anyone else and none to be shared with us. After all, isn’t a large part of life being social and relating to others? This applies to “The Danger of a Single Story,” a speech by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie. She understands the hazard of having only a single view of something because when she came to the U.S., people assumed that she listened to tribal music and didn’t live in a civilized home because of where she was from. Of course, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. A single story is essentially a stereotype, which can possibly be true to an extent but always incomplete, as Chimamanda says. When we view the world through the veil of a single story, we miss out on the learning experience that is the complete story. Having prejudices is rarely – if ever – a good thing, and only emphasizes the differences between people instead of taking a peek at the similarities.
